[Harp-L] Re Gary Bond's digital VS analog gear comments

[Roger Boyce <roger.boyce@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Gary
Good to hear your perspective on amp modelers vs analog gear. First let me
say that Richard Hunter ( who you cite in your post ) is a masterful
inventive player and a generous personality as well...Hunter has responded
to my posts asking for advice on a couple of occasions and I have seen him
unselfishly go out of his way more times than I can count - patiently
answering queries from newcomers and vets alike.

Thus my comments re. modeler and analog device tone is in no way directed or
meant to be instructive to (as if I could be) the estimable Mr. Hunter.

By weighing in I do not intend to fire up another debate on digital vs
analog tone - I simply wish to weigh in with my ( inexpert ) experience with
both.

I've been playing amplified harp for over 40 years - started out playing
through a Bassman - my only effect then was an early ( maybe the first )
fuzz pedal ( grey hammer-tone wedge that ran only on batteries - think it
was a Maestro ) I didn't even have a delay - which at the time were
cumbersome affairs. During my active live period I played through a number
of ( Silvertone, Gibson, Fender ) valve amps and finally got a solid-state
delay when they came on the scene.

Big empty musical hole in middle-age came about as a result of a relatively
successful career in the arts - I slowly shed all my gear as I was not
playing live, or even jamming anymore - too busy. Always kept a set of harps
( Marine Bands at the time ) in my truck and played whenever wherever I
drove to - short or long trips. Playing while driving ( steering with my
knees - kids don't try this as it has a mortally dangerous learning curve )
is how I learned to play in the first place....while driving delivery trucks
during my shit-job youth.

Fast-backwards to 9 years ( or so ) ago when I got the amplified/live bug
again and began to look into what was available to the Rip Van Winkle of the
Harp - namely me. Surprise, delghts galore awaited me on the
web......gazillions of new players had reinforced the thin ranks of harp
players that populated my coming of age. More choice in harp brands - I now
use Bushman Delta Frosts ( for the pure and unique sound of 'em, although
they are sometimes inconsistent in mfg.-to my ear you can't beat them for
timbre and fluidity of playing ) some Suzuki Pros in low keys as the
Bushmans tend to reed-rattle in lower registers & I use a couple of Bushman
Soul's Voices in the higher range of F & F#.

Now to amplification. I was older and had more ( meaning more-than-none )
money than I had as a younger man so I bought a series of vintage combos and
heads - including ( finally ) countless Masco combos and heads, etc., etc.

Which brings me to modelers - I bought some modelers ( cause they were
lightweight ) such as the Digitech and POD brands to take to jams. At first
blush I thought they were freaking marvelous...so many choices, so many
combinations - I felt like a tonal monk who had suddenly discovered the joys
of tonal libertinage. I was tonally promiscuous to a fault - so many
choices, so little lifetime. At home alone I spent huge blocks of time
exploring the various sonic pathways offered by modelers. Oh, Oh, what
private Onanistic joy I experienced.

Then something happened ( ascribe it to my age,mid-range erosion in my
hearing curve, early tonal imprinting, satiation - what have you ) my ear
grew exhausted by a certain underlying homogeneity that I felt informed
most, if not all the sounds I could 'milk' from my digital units. I became
aurally fatigued by a tonal thread that ran gratingly through the supposedly
varied tonal weaves ( patches?) possible with these new ( to me ) devices.

I schlepped stoop-shouldered with exhaustion back to my musty analog horde
and began to narrow down my sonic smorgasbord to 2 Mascos ( tweaked by the
Masco guru Skip Simmons ) pushing a 59 bassman cab - sans the combo's
original electronic guts.

In the end I sold all my vintage valve gear - sold the last ( and best )
Masco recently here in New Zealand where I've moved from the US - to Nick
Jackman, an awesome celtic & country harp player living here in
Christchurch.

I now play through a Kendrick Texas Crude 4x10, built for me by Gerald.
As for effects I still use my DM2 for delay with the MN3005 chip - not for
its fetishistic juju but because it does add a layer of succulent baby-fat
to a note or chord. I also have on my pedalboard ( though seldom employed )
a POG polyoctave used in conjunction with an older two channel version of
the HUSH to quiet the pog's dirty noise floor - I occasionally use the POG
to comp and rhythm fill at low volume. I also have a Boss OC2 which stays on
except when the POG is running - with the middle knob cranked all the way to
the right and the two ocatve knobs definitively OFF.

The OC2 adds a bearable gain signature to my sound without the normal
relationship difficulties that come when harp and gain get married. Alaso
always on is the Van Amps Reverbamate ( a true spring reverb as an oversized
pedal ) I run the Reverbamate at very low ( almost impeceptible ) levels
into the Kendrick's second channel.

Arriving today ( 30 minutes ago ) at my door is a Brian Purdy Harp Gear 5-7
watter....cause it is light, and - at least, when Greunling is playing
through it on the Harp Gear sample page sounds uncannily like a low-watt
version of the Kendrick.

With the rig I am now using I feel like I'm cooking rather than serving the
ready-to-serve sonic-meals I felt I was getting with the digital modelers.
By adding more or less of pedal-flavoring I can change the nuance of my tone
- but the underlying rich, fattening, sweet valve back-taste is what lingers
in memory after the time-dependent notes decay into nothingness.

I go now to open the box holding my Harp-Gear mini-me. Hi Brian if your
reading this I'll send you a report on the amp after I've had my way with it
- poor dear.

Be well everyone and realize y'all are living in the golden-age of the
pocket-rocket.
Cheers
Wader